# Vote against Alito, or I'll reveal that you're a closeted gay man!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-against-alito-or-ill-reveal-that-youre-a-closeted-gay-man/342697>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 2, 2006, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-against-alito-or-ill-reveal-that-youre-a-closeted-gay-man/342697 "2006-02-02T18:28:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-against-alito-or-ill-reveal-that-youre-a-closeted-gay-man/342697/61 "2006-02-05T15:28:39Z")

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> [@mhendo](#):
>
> Is something really blackmail if the putative victim doesn’t even know of the existence of the threat, what is required of him, or the consequences of non-compliance? Say some guy says on his blog that if an Australian guy living in Baltimore doesn’t hand over $100 by the end of the day, his house will be showered with eggs. Am i really being blackmailed even if i didn’t read the blog, never knew of the threat, and could never even be certain that i was the Australian guy in question?

Even if you did read the blog, tht would be extortion, not blackmail.

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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-against-alito-or-ill-reveal-that-youre-a-closeted-gay-man/342697/62 "2006-02-05T18:19:19Z")

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> [@zagloba](#):
>
> Even if you did read the blog, that would be extortion, not blackmail.

Point taken, but i think the substance of my argument stands.

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**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-against-alito-or-ill-reveal-that-youre-a-closeted-gay-man/342697/63 "2006-02-06T07:55:29Z")

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Yes, **mhendo** , I should have labelled my post as nitpicking and acknowledged its irrlevance to the thrust of your argument.

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**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vote-against-alito-or-ill-reveal-that-youre-a-closeted-gay-man/342697/64 "2006-02-06T20:35:55Z")

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> [@zagloba](#):
>
> Even if you did read the blog, tht would be extortion, not blackmail.

Isn’t blackmail just a particular kind of extortion, anyway?

Extortion: “Do X for me, or I will do Nasty Thing Y to you.”  
Blackmail: “Do X for me, or I will divulge Nasty Secret Y about you.”

Just looked it up in my ancient dead-trees dictionary, and they concur, defining blackmail as “extortion by threats esp. of public exposure.”  
At any rate, blackmail and extortion are reprehensible as well as criminal. I have no problem with ‘outing’ someone who publicly works against the very thing they are or do out of the public eye, but if someone’s going to do the outing on such grounds, they should just do it, and not explore whether they can profit from _not_ doing it.

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